Laura Mulvey is renowned theorist of films who has written several articles about different aspects in the film industry. One of her most famous essays is “Visual pleasure in the Narrative Cinema” that generally explores the roles played by women in the film industry. Mulvey in this essay states that there are two general roles of women in the film industry. Women in the “Visual pleasure in the Narrative Cinema” excite their audience from their erotic antics as they also gain satisfaction from the feeling that they are attracting attention from the opposite sex. Their dressing styles and general cosmetics attribute a lot to this aspect.
She outlines the male gender automatic power to look at women as desired objects by the passive observation of their bodies. In this case, the women become simple symbols or objects with no real power or agency. This is glorified in the films in that the male’s audience puts the women as objects of display. This is a contradictory conclusion because the film’s audience is not entirely comprised of men and not every female in all films is portrayed as a desired object as evidenced by some recent films with leading female actresses.
Mulvey bases most of her arguments on one of the Hitchcock’s most famous films, “Rear Window”, and this is quite understandable. The idea of the male gaze is clearly visible in this film. There is clear and cutthroat evidence that Lisa Freemont, the main female character, that her character demands constant attention from the male audience as a result of the director’s costume choices, general close ups and the way that she is portrayed in soft flattering light. In fact, analysis of this film blends the male gaze with eroticism that is evident in audience Jeffries. Even though he has no sexual feelings towards Lisa, an erotic portrayal of this female protagonist dominate his scene even after she bridges the gap between his room and the opposite block. This eroticism is more exposed by her dressing style that accords her a passive image that satisfies ones urge to look at.
Mulvey also asserts that filming and cinema production in general, are today more expensive than it used to be. More and more money is being used in films production as compared to several decades ago. In this regard, several film makers have resorted to aesthetics in the bid to add more value to their films at affordable costs. This adoption of aesthetics gives a breathing space financially to the film producers and directors. Hitchcock is not left out in this either and that is why he uses model women in her films to glue his male audience on the screen. This point is clearly illustrated by Lisa in the film Rear Window as she fully captures the attention of the photo-called journalist Jeffers.
The ‘gaze’ aspect as stipulated by Laura Mulvey can also be explored from different perspectives that include the increase of female nudity in the films together with the gaze aspect internalized into women such that they have reached appoint of even viewing themselves as simple objects of desire. This is an aspect of women portrayal that cannot be underrated whatsoever because is highly manifesting itself.
Mulvey also expresses that there has been a massive shift in the view of objectification such that it is currently viewed as a source of pleasure thus leading to its massive glorification in Hollywood films. The fact that the men have been identified as the primary viewers throughout history has also contributed significantly to this issue. She emphasizes that the idea of the object of pleasure comes both from the viewer and the character being viewed. Most characters, if not all, of the female characters that are subject to the pleasure of viewing do enjoy to be viewed. These female characters also enjoy the scene of being viewed by the male audiences and in some cases would tend to be more erotic so as to attract more attention of the audience. This implies that the female actresses are not just set by the film and cinema directors to become objects of pleasure to the male audience.
Laura Mulvey idea’s are evident in the film because of their expression in different ways including subjective camerawork. This particular film device makes a placement of a specific character on the audience thus giving viewing power to the audience. (Mulvey 18). However, Hitchcock tries to place more complexity on things through the non-alignment of identification and viewpoints in some of the film’s parts.
Many years after the release of this essay, Laura Mulvey wrote an article titled “Afterthoughts on Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” inspired by Duel in the Sun. In this article Laura Mulvey tries to respond to respond to some of the criticism that had been brought forward by various critics on her original article Visual pleasure in the Narrative cinema. Mulvey expresses that the main question is that she has been asked is about the choice of the male audience as the representative of film viewers. In fact she states that singular males as a representative when in fact the film audience is varied in nature and includes peoples of all genders. Mulvey tries to respond to this issue by stating that at the time she was writing the sample in 1981, her main interest was the relationship between the portrayal of the woman in films and perception that the better part of a film’s audience is comprised of the male gender, that is the audience is masculinized.
Mulvey however states that the film “Duel in the Sun” managed to convince her of a different perspective on this issue. She states that the role of women in the film has definitely evolved and argues that the intended female spectator can take two roles in modern films. The two roles include the acquired perception of women as objects of desire and the masculinazation of the film makers of the audience.
Another distinguishable feature of the Hitchcock’s film is the general portrayal of females in his films including their perceptions and the roles they play in his films. The perception of women by Hitchcock has also been a huge object of discussion by film critics. Most emphasis on this issue has been on the selection of the lead women in his films and the roles that they play.
There have been varied opinions among critics, experts and general film lovers about this hot issue. Some are of the opinion that Alfred Hitchcock can display misogynist characteristic while others are were of the opinion that he opened more opportunities for ladies in the film industry by giving them high levels of importance, something that most notable directors did not do or even consider. In one of his most famous films, titled Rear window a distinctive aspect about women can be identified. This is that all women are mirror reflections of each other in terms of their characteristics and values (Durgnat 36).
The main female protagonist in the film, Lisa is made to look like a reflection of her fellow women including even some of her physical attributes and characteristics. The film Rear Window tries to express or show the wider variety of women’s dimensions and the splitting of these dimensions into different female characters to show the incapability of the woman to posses many dimensions instead of one.
Once again, Lisa the main female protagonist is perceived by the film as a sophisticated individual in affairs considered frivolous only. However, she does not possess the capability to be complex or have a multi-faceted life. This is the same view that the male character Jeff has of Lisa, something that automatically rubs off on the film’s audience. In other words, Jeffers as a passive audience is able to get pleasure from watching Lisa’s erotic moves or character. Her simplicity manifests itself even more and thus contradicting the notion presented in her early appearances.
In her article “Afterthoughts on Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” which was inspired by Duel in the Sun, Laura Mulvey tries to respond to respond to some of the criticism that had been brought forward by various critics on her original article Visual pleasure in the Narrative cinema. Mulvey expresses that the main question is that she has been asked is about the choice of the male audience as the representative of film viewers. In fact she states that singular males as a representative when in fact the film audience is varied in nature and includes peoples of all genders. Mulvey tries to respond to this issue by stating that at the time she was writing the sample in 1981, her main interest was the relationship between the portrayal of the woman in films and perception that the better part of a film’s audience is comprised of the male gender, that is the audience is masculinized.
Mulvey capitalizes her analysis on most of the famous Hitchcock’s films, “Rear Window”, and this is quite understandable. The idea of the male gaze is clearly visible in this film. There is clear and cutthroat evidence that Lisa Freemont, the main female character, that her character demands constant attention from the male audience as a result of the director’s costume choices, general close ups and the way that she is portrayed in soft flattering light. In fact, analysis of this film blends the male gaze with eroticism that is evident in audience Jeffries. Even though he has no sexual feelings towards Lisa, an erotic portrayal of this female protagonist dominate his scene even after she bridges the gap between his room and the opposite block. This eroticism is more exposed by her dressing style that accords her a passive image that satisfies ones urge to look at.
Mulvey does not seem to explore fully the portrayal of women by Hitchcock’s films. There are some minor elements of opportunism that cannot be just ignored. It is very clear that the towering portrayal is mainly vested of the sexuality of the opposite genders as women are targeted to attract and glue men to the screen through their erotic and somewhat explicit actions. Women in the Hitchcock movies take good use of available opportunities to benefit themselves in one way or another. Some of these female characters would take an advantage of the masculine counterparts in the play to exploit them mostly materially. This is an aspect that is very typical of many movies and Hitchcock’s films are no exception. In fact, some of the fiercest conflicts in films and cinemas begin from this context.
However, the role played by women in Hitchcock cannot be over emphasized. Although many critics are not generally satisfied with the portrayal of women in his films, the part that he played in balancing the gender aspects is huge. In his struggle to attain gender balance, he fails to provide a streamlined character balance in relation to gender. His selection seems biased and this can manifest itself in most of her works. Though in some cases he goes beyond average, he fails to hit a satisfactory line that is inclusive enough for the audience.
Hitchcock definitely opened doors for a lot of the female actors and this is one of the reasons why there is gender imbalance and streamlining in the modern film industry. Some of the actors that were involved in his Hollywood hits like, “Psycho” and “Rear Window” went on to become huge figures in the motion films culture. Good directorship should bring on board some gender harmony by balancing up the gender representation in such films. Having high number of female actresses makes them very conspicuous and inevitable for the viewer. As they dominate the stage, the audience has no choice other than to focus its full attention on them. This can lead to a very strong erotic feeling from the male gender towards the female actresses.
It is however quite clear that there will be no end to this debate in the near future and this will continue to be a subject of discussion in many film cycles. Laura Mulvey’s viewpoint should not be criticized since she is merely expressing her personal opinion that everyone is completely entitled to. She is giving her personal account of what she feels and finds the main agenda behind the feminist characters in the film. To some good extent, she proves her point of view beyond reasonable doubt. This is already illustrated by Hitchcock’s audience as they seem to consume exactly what is prepared for them.
According to Mulvey’s analysis, Hitchcock doubtlessly opened doors for a lot of the female actors and this is one of the reasons why there is gender imbalance and streamlining in the modern film industry. Some of the actors that were involved in his Hollywood hits like, “Psycho” and “Rear Window” went on to become huge figures in the motion films culture. Good directorship should bring on board some gender harmony by balancing up the gender representation in such films. Having high number of female actresses makes them very conspicuous and inevitable for the viewer. As they dominate the stage, the audience has no choice other than to focus its full attention on them. This can lead to a very strong erotic feeling from the male gender towards the female actresses. She strongly feels that gender balance is not fully achieved in the Hitchcock’s films.
The perception of women as displayed in films by directors such as Hitchcock are simply their own definitions of the female character’s aspects and should not be used to generalize about the entire male gender’s opinion on female characters portrayed in the thousands of films released, sold and watched throughout the world. Various film directors have different objectives to achieve in their films and thus may have different perceptions of both females and males as well. For instance, an erotic perception can be used to capture the attention of a young and vibrant audience that appears to looking for such satisfaction from the films.
Many film directors would wish to use the power of a woman’s physic to pool crowds of men to watching their films or cinemas. As demonstrated in the Hitchcock’s films, both men and women enjoy watching erotic scenes that trigger some pleasurable sensation to both of them. Even though various film producers will always have their own reasons for their portrayal of various characters based on gender, the truth is that the real message lies with the audience. It in fact sounds stranger that even the women characters enjoy being watched in an erotic manner. As many critics would put it that not all masculine audiences perceive female characters with some pleasurable rewards, the fact is that these female characters are so tempting that an audience may find itself deviating of veering off in pleasurable illusions.
Works Cited
Laura, Mulvey. Visual and other Pleasures. Michigan: Macmillan Publishers, 2009. Print
